Missing Malaysian Jet 370 Could Be ‘Act of PIRACY’ And LANDED Somewhere

A U.S. official has said investigators were examining the possibility the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was “an act of piracy”. This is the first time that officials admitted today that the jet could have been hijacked. Two sources to Reuters an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Boeing 777 jetliner was following a route between navigational waypoints when it was last plotted on military radar off the country’s northwest coast.

Photo By: Mail Online

The official, who wasn’t authorised to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, also said it was possible the plane may have landed somewhere. The position suggested the plane was flying toward India’s Andaman Islands, which lie between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Every hour the mystery deepens. One of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation remains unsolved after nearly a week. How could an airliner with 239 people on board simply vanish? MH370 is becoming one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of aviation.

There are disparate theories about what might have happened to flight 370 but no clues that lend merit to any of them. Yet another theory is taking shape about what might have happened to flight 370: Maybe it landed in a remote Indian Ocean island chain, CNN posted a brief theory recently.

Missing Malaysia Airline Jet “May Have Flown on For Five Hours”

The new revelations that an automatic onboard satellite link, operated by London-based telecommunications company Inmarsat, sent pings from the plane at least five hours after it lost contact with ground control . However, the signals gave no indication about where the stray jet was heading nor its technical condition.

Photo By: The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal said that aviation investigators and national security officials believed the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing 777′s engines, as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring programme.

The paper posted image which shows some shocking angles on this mystery, “The report details that the airplane’s two Trent 800 engines continued to send out data for five hours as part of a monitoring and maintenance program.” Malaysia Airlines said on Thursday it had retired the missing aircraft’s flight code as a sign of respect to the passengers and crew on board.

The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft. The “pings” indicated that the aircraft’s maintenance troubleshooting systems were switched on and ready to communicate with satellites as needed, according to the Reuters.

But no data links were opened because the companies involved had not subscribed to that level of service from the satellite operator, the sources said. As reported by Sky News, a statement issued by satellite operator Inmarsat said: “Routine, automated signals were registered on the Inmarsat network from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 during its flight from Kuala Lumpur. “This information was provided to our partner SITA, which in turn has shared it with Malaysia Airlines.”

Possible Sabotage or Hijack

Taken together, the data point toward speculation in a dark scenario in which someone took the plane for some unknown purpose, perhaps terrorism. A senior Malaysian police official said to Reuters, “What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards.”

The former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom told CNN, “You draw that arc, and you look at countries like Pakistan, you know, and you get into your ‘Superman’ novels, and you see the plane landing somewhere and (people) repurposing it for some dastardly deed down the road.” If the plane did carry on flying for that time it could have travelled 2,200 nautical miles, possibly reaching north-western India and the border with Pakistan.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says when he was asked about the possibility of “sabotage”, “A normal investigation becomes narrower with time … as new information focuses the search, but this is not a normal investigation,” he told a news conference. “In this case, the information has forced us to look further and further afield.”

Landing in Andaman and Nicobar Islands: “No Chance, No Such Chance”

It was earlier claimed military radar suggested the plane was deliberately flown towards the India’s Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Denis Giles, editor of the Andaman Chronicle newspaper, says there’s just nowhere to land such a big plane in his archipelago without attracting notice. He told CNN, “There is no chance, no such chance, that any aircraft of this size can come towards Andaman and Nicobar Islands and land.”

Pentagon Says Malaysia Airlines Flight Crashed in the Indian Ocean; Will Find In 24 Hours

A Pentagon official is reported to have said that it has information that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went down in the India Ocean while Malaysian authorities have also expanded search westward towards India.

ABC News report quoted an unnamed “senior Pentagon official” as saying “We have an indication the plane went down in the Indian Ocean.” U.S destoyer USS Kidd is now reportedly being moved in to search the area, while Malaysia was due to ask for radar data from India and other neighbouring countries to see if they can trace the plane flying north west. The same Pentagon official hinted that it would take 24 hours for USS Kidd to be moved into position.

The Guardian reports that White House spokesman Jay Carney has confirmed that a new search area may be opened in the Indian Coean. He said in a statement, “It is my understanding the one possible piece of information, or pieces of information, has led to the possibility that a new search area may be opened up over the Indian Ocean.” Follow us onTwitter and Facebookto join the conversation.